The Newsflesh Series by Mira Grant

Welcome new reviewer, Kate!

The thing about a zombie apocalypse is: I like our chances. I’ve seen Romero movies. I’ve seen Shaun of the Dead. I know what and what not to do, and I think you do too. In this trilogy Grant imagines zombies rising in our near future, and the human race survives. Granted, the human race survives alongside the undead, because zombies are nothing if not pervasive, but we move on.

These books take place about twenty years post-apocalypse, and the world is hardly a wasteland. Feed is a novel about three young reporters following a presidential campaign. If the candidate they happen to be following is targeted for assassination by zombies, it certainly doesn’t make the story less interesting. There is just as much political thriller in these books as science fiction, for all that the explanation of the living dead is a virulently interesting one. Of course, I also loved the way Grant explored the evolution of our technology. We become very good at blood tests and the invasion of privacy twenty years after the zombie apocalypse.

Unfortunately, the interpersonal relationships in this series grossed me out more than the zombie slaying, blood splattering, and needle injections combined. If incest triggers for you give these a miss, but if you were able to make it past the first Game of Thrones novel, you’ll probably be fine.

Overall, these are three great zombie novels, because they aren’t about zombies. They are about integrity, moral leadership, and, above all, telling the truth.